What is a Voicethread?

- an online tool where you can upload images, videos or documents and then leave voice/audio comments on them
- multiple people can leave comments on the same images
- you can draw on the image, video or document while leaving an audio comment

Why Voicethreads?

- provide an another way for students to demonstrate their understanding
- provide feedback to students
- communicate with e-Learning students
- collect reflections on an activity, topic or idea
- keep private between voicethread members or share with community
- Voicethread 4 Education Wiki (lots of great ideas on how to use Voicethreads in education)

Samples

Elementary

The above Voicethread was created by Marie Swift and her class (@mswift on twitter,

Secondary

Practice Voicethread

Please feel free to leave comments on the practice voicethread below. Remember that once you leave a comment you can delete it, but this is an online tool and therefore all aspects of digital citizenship need to be remembered. Anyone can go to this voicethread and see/hear your comments. Comments should be appropriate, constructive and positive.

Free vs Pro?

For educators there are two options.
- Free option (VT Educator - you must apply/request this using your school board email address). It allows you up to 50 voicethreads. You cannot create student accounts (they will need to create their own free accounts), but can create identities for students. This means you would have to log into Voicethreads and then students can leave comments using your account (please see the elementary example above as an example of how this works). If students had their own accounts they could login on their own and from home.
- Pro Account (cost is $60/year). This allows you to create up to 100 student accounts (each student can have 50 voicethreads) and create groups within your class. Student will have their own login and password and can login from anywhere.

Choosing which one works best for you depends on how you will be using the tool. If you are using it with younger grades who will always be using Voicethread with your supervision and if you will be creating the voicethreads while students are leaving comments, then the free option will likely work well. If you would like students to be creating their own voicethreads and logging in from home, the paid version is likely best.

Whole-School Options
Many schools are going to a whole-school option where they purchase an account for every student and teacher. This costs approximately $1 per account. So if you have 300 students and 25 staff members, your cost will be about $325. This option allows you to create classes, groups and manage all settings in one place. For more information about this option please see here: http://voicethread.com/products/k12/school/